


take what i can get

by dryadfiona



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, F/F, takes some elements from 3x26 but mostly its own au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:53:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27866417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: Lux has always been Maze's to run, so she's less than pleased when Lucifer tells her to hire this person she hasn't even had a chance to trail for a few weeks.
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar (Implied), Chloe Decker/Mazikeen
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	take what i can get

"What do you mean, I _have_ to hire someone?"

"Don't be contrary, Maze," Lucifer says, which makes Maze want to dig in her heels and refuse to ever run Lux again. Still, the place is as much hers as Lucifer's, so that's not a price she wants to pay _quite_ yet.

"I thought you said you were going to stop hiring people here as a favor," Maze says, annoyed. "Especially not people for the bar! That dancer was bad enough--"

"--he wasn't _awful_ \--"

"--yes, he _was_ , you just think he's hot," Maze says. Lucifer nods, conceding the point. "Who is it?"

"It's not a favor," Lucifer says. Maze frowns at him, using one of her knives to pick out the various bar detritus that's gotten caught under her nails. "Do you remember Chloe?"

Maze rolls her eyes. "That human you were completely gone on? The actress?" She tries to infuse the word with as much disdain as she does the word _angel_ , and judging from the annoyed expression on Lucifer's face, she's succeeded. "What, she wasn't able to get another Weaponizer movie in the bag?"

"She's trying to get _out_ of acting, if you recall," Lucifer says, and Maze rolls her eyes. "She needs a job while she's in the police academy, and acting takes up far too much time."

"What, she doesn't have enough from her movie checks? You made me go with you to go see the new one, the theater was _packed_."

"Yes, well, her contract's quite unfair," Lucifer says with a little affronted sniff. "And besides, a good portion of her money goes to security for her daughter." Maze can't actually fault that, much as she wants to say something cutting, so she just twirls her knife around and stays silent. Sure enough, Lucifer eventually continues. "She just needs enough to live on for about six months."

"Six _months_?" Maze groans. That means she's stuck with the girl scout for months longer than she'd wanted. "You owe me."

"No, I don't," Lucifer says. "I own this place."

Maze glares at him. "Name _one_ of our suppliers."

"...Restaur--"

"No."

"Fine, what do you want?"

"Your convertible," Maze says.

Lucifer gapes at her. "No! Absolutely not!"

"Tell Decker good luck on the job search, then," Maze says.

"Fine! Fine. If at the end of her time in the academy, you haven't fired her, you can have my car."

"Deal," Maze says with a grin. Sucker's bet.

"You can't drive her away, either," Lucifer adds.

"What? Unfair."

"Mazikeen."

Lucifer's got his _I'm-actually-taking-this-seriously_ face on. Maze hates that face. The first time she saw it, it spelled the end of her fun on Earth. Now, it's commonplace, which is the crux of the problem, really.

"No more than I do anyone else on staff," she concedes. 

Lucifer nods, and watching him leave, Maze isn't sure which one of them won that conversation.

* * *

When Chloe Decker shows up at the bar in an outfit better suited for trying to win over a jury, Maze closes her eyes and reminds herself how badly she wants to drive that convertible at a hundred miles an hour. 

"Decker," Maze calls from the bar. "Get over here."

Chloe smiles at her easily, which Maze resents. "Hey! What was your name again?"

"Mazikeen," Maze says.

"Oh," Chloe says. "Uh--"

"Do you have _any_ bartending experience?" Maze asks. "Restaurant experience in general?"

Chloe shakes her head. "I've never had a job other than acting." 

Maze groans and swears something in Lilim. "Can you wash dishes, at least?"

"Uh, yes, why--"

"Great. You're on dish duty tonight. Go quickly and _don't_ break anything. I don't have the time to teach you to mix drinks today. You'll get a portion of the tips, but less than you'd get if you were one of our servers or actual bartenders. Got it?"

Maze keeps her tone brusque, professional, so that Chloe won't do what Maze is _sure_ she wants to which is complain to Lucifer. She's got him wrapped around her finger, and Maze still isn't sure why Lucifer isn't just paying her and her brat's bills himself. It's not like he couldn't afford it. 

"Got it," Chloe says, nodding with a fixed determination that Maze might find cute if it was on anyone else.

Maze gives her a week, tops. 

* * *

Three weeks later, Chloe's helping Maze close. The two of them haven't exchanged more than a couple sentences between them other than the usual _bring this to table 6,_ _here's your check, remember you're opening tomorrow_. As little faith (ha) as Maze had in Chloe, she'd exceeded every expectation. She's switched to more bar-appropriate outfits after the third day, where Maze had looked her up and down and scoffed, "Decker, why are you dressing for an interview, you already have the job?". She's only broken one dish, and the wineglasses snap so easily that Maze can't fault her for it, as much as she wants to. 

Chloe always helps the servers out when they're overwhelmed, and Maze saw her bussing tables without being asked even back on night two. She's still officially only on dish duty, but hey, part of the business is that everyone helps out everywhere, so Maze doesn't anticipate anything changing anytime soon.

Of course, after Chloe's finished mopping, she sits right down on one of the barstools and says, "So. Mixing drinks."

Maze lifts a brow at her. "I _just_ finished wiping the bar down."

"I'll clean after you show me," Chloe says, that same determination on her face. "Please. I get that you're busy, but the kitchen's got plenty of dishwashers and the bar's been completely swamped the last week. I can do more out here."

"And the tips aren't a factor at all?" Maze says.

Chloe rolls her eyes. "Of course they are. We live in a capitalist society, I'd like to not _die_. But I wouldn't ask if I thought you needed me in the kitchen. I know you did Lucifer a favor by hiring me--"

"--I don't _do_ favors," Maze hisses, leaning forward and into Chloe's space. "I hired you so that he'd give me his convertible."

"Oh," Chloe says. "Wait, but he still has the car?"

Maze rolls her eyes, leans back. "Yeah, he wanted to make sure I wouldn't drive you away as soon as he handed me the keys."

"Would you have?"

"Absolutely," Maze says with a grin. Chloe's glare is so much more gratifying than Maze would've thought. "But hey, you're not _awful_."

"And I can do _better_ behind the bar," Chloe says, leaning right back in Maze's space. Maze has to admire the guts of it. "Why don't you want me here?"

"Because," Maze says, and trails off, because to admit the reason would be embarrassing and altogether unhelpful.

"So," Chloe says, smiling in a way that shows she's confident she's won the argument. Maze would like to cut it off, but to be fair, she did. "Show me how to mix some drinks."

* * *

Chloe isn't terrible at bartending either. Maze is still better, and she's proud of that, but Chloe holds her own. She rattles off their most expensive drinks and talks about how _delicious_ they are to the frat boys gullible enough to fall for it, manages to sell the nice vintages to the rich, pretentious clubbers, and mixes the fancy cocktails and mocktails as quick as Patrick, and almost as quick as Maze. 

The problem is that now they're both behind the bar all the time, and Maze is starting to see what it is about Chloe that Lucifer likes so much. It's not that she'd fit right in down below--she's got this _goodness_ that Maze is surprised no one's taken advantage of yet. It's not that she'd fit in with Heaven, either; she's been open about her disbelief in God and general issues with religion in general. 

Chloe's human, annoyingly so, and Maze _hates_ that she finds it as endearing as she does. 

She's insistent about pushing Maze--asking Maze why she has issues with her until Maze snaps that she _doesn't_ anymore, fuck, get back to work, please? And Chloe had smiled at that, and Maze--smiled back.

"What's wrong with you?" Patrick had asked her a few minutes later. "I don't think I've ever seen you smile like that before."

"Fuck off," Maze says, cheeks warm. Chloe had been distracted with a gaggle of sorority girls, thank fuck, but still, she doesn't need that kind of scrutiny. 

And then there's the way she sees through Maze, sees through _Lucifer._ Lucifer had come down one night, surrounded by attractive singles of a variety of genders, and ordered shots for them all. Chloe and Maze had poured them, and when the crowd had left, Chloe had said, "I really don't get him."

"He just wants to get laid," Maze says dismissively. "C'mon, back to work."

"No, I mean--he doesn't seem to _like_ any of those people," Chloe says with a frown. "You know?"

"I don't," Maze says. "He's having a great time."

"I guess," Chloe says. "He just--seems lonely."

Maze swallows, thinking about Lucifer, a few years after they'd come up here, drunker than he'd been in eons, saying in this quiet, plaintive voice, _I miss my wings_.

"We shouldn't be talking about this," Maze says, which is a far cry from the, "Shut up, Decker," she'd meant to say.

Chloe frowns at her, and Maze turns away, mixing a margarita that no one ordered just to avoid looking at her.

* * *

Maze, for all she fronts, likes her staff. Patrick's fun, the kitchen staff give as good as they get, and Chloe's grown on her, after three months of being someone she might have just hired in general. So when they ask her to join them for a drink on one of their nights off, she doesn't have any reason to say no. 

At least, she thinks she doesn't, but that's before she finds out that Chloe's a _wild_ drunk.

Chloe doesn't go so far as to make out with attractive strangers, like Lucifer, or start fights, like Maze. But she's dancing, which Maze has _never_ seen her do before, and she's flirty, complimenting Patrick's hair and the head chef's arms and, best or possibly worst of all, Maze's "everything".

"I mean, your whole thing is just, like--" Chloe nods, which doesn't explain it at all, and Maze has never been more thankful that blushes don't show up on her face. "It's good. Or--I mean, you hate being 'good'. It's hot."

"Thanks, Decker, but I think you just need to get laid," Maze says to distract herself from the sudden, powerful urge to drag Chloe into her lap and see how much she means that. She knows better than to hit on a straight girl, especially one who Lucifer's so obviously into.

"You offering?" Chloe asks with a sly grin, and Maze does _not_ choke on her drink, but it's a near thing.

"Alright, water for you," Maze says, ignoring the laughter of the kitchen staff. "Come on."

"What? I'm fine," Chloe protests. "I'm just enjoying myself, it's my first free night in ages."

"You get a day off every week," Maze says.

"Yeah, but then I'm studying for exams or at the range or like--you know?"

Maze _doesn't_ know--police work is about as far from her interests as the Holy Host--but she nods. "Okay. For me, then."

"Fine," Chloe agrees, and Maze really hadn't expected that to work, but she takes Chloe up to the bar to get some waters for the table anyway. "Oh."

"What?" Maze asks, turning to look at Chloe, who has a hand wrapped around her stomach, and looks a little green. "Bathroom."

"Yeah," Chloe says, and heads over as fast as she can, drunk and in heels, which isn't very fast at all.

Maze takes the waters to the table, and tells herself she isn't worried, she isn't, she's just--she doesn't want to be on bad terms with this bar, she _likes_ this bar, and heading to the bathroom to make sure Chloe's okay is all part of that, obviously. 

Chloe isn't actually vomiting in one stall, just standing by the sink staring at herself in the mirror, face soaked like she's splashed herself with water a few times. She jumps when Maze walks in.

"Hey," Maze says. "You good? The guys were worried."

It's a lie, but Chloe doesn't call her on it, just nods. "Yeah! Fine."

"...why're you still here?" Maze asks.

"Working myself up to something," Chloe says.

"What?" Maze says with a snort, hoping up on the counter the sinks are resting in, leaning against the mirror. It's pleasantly cool against her back. "Trying to ask me for a raise?"

"No," Chloe says. "No, just--"

She trails off, and Maze has known Chloe to be a lot of things, but cowardly isn't one of them. "Everything okay with Trixie?"

Chloe nods and laughs, which seems weird. "Yeah! Yeah. Thanks for asking."

"So what is it?" Maze says, gently kicking her. She's never been good at this emotional talk.

"I have...feelings for someone," Chloe says. "And I don't know how to, like, bring it up?"

Maze's heart sinks, and she tells herself not to worry about it. It's not her place, not her problem. Chloe isn't hers to be jealous of, and Lucifer isn't, either. "He's a lucky guy, whoever he is."

"What?" Chloe asks, looking over at her. "What are you talking about?"

"It's Lucifer, right?" Maze says with a grin, distracted by the water droplets in Chloe's eyelashes, of all things. "He's been into you for months. Pretty sure it's why he made me hire you."

"Oh," Chloe says. "That's--"

"Word of advice," Maze says, dropping off the counter, ready to escape this conversation as soon as she can. "Doesn't matter how you bring it up. He'll probably be so relieved you're into him too that he'll barely remember it."

"Thanks," Chloe says dully. Maze wonders if maybe she's drunker than she thought; the reaction doesn't seem to make that much sense.

"Don't mention it," Maze says with a grin that looks fake in the mirror. "Seriously."

"I won't," Chloe says, standing up to her full height. "I think I'm gonna head home now."

"Not to Lux?" Maze says.

"No," Chloe snaps, then takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I'm drunk."

"Don't worry about it," Maze says. "I'll call you a cab."

"Thanks," Chloe says to Maze's back as she heads out of the bathroom. Maze doesn't look back, and tells herself this is what she gets for hiring someone.

The car better be fucking worth it. 


End file.
